If a picture is worth a thousand words, Conrad expends many thousands in his cinematic writing style of "turn on the camera and describe everything" in a seemless opening framing shot.  Bogged down by too many words (for some things, the visual media like film and painting are more appropriate), the story really doesn't start cracking until the scene is set and the action starts.

Then, a classic tale emerges of a 3rd-world South American country (modeled on Paraguay, supposedly) racked by constant revolution, and peopled by native Indians, long-entrenched Spanish, and newer expatriate groups of English, Germans, and Italians.  One Englishman, Charles Gould, and his beautiful and elegant wife, are drawn to the country (Charles was born there but left for school in England) by the San Tome mine concession.  This concession was granted to Charles' father at a time when the technology and instrastructure would not support mining operations, but the government still extracted royalties from Gould Senior until it broke him financially and physically.

Returning to the country after his father's death with his new bride, Charles sees an opportunity to make the mine work, and does--to the detriment of his life, his wife, and his companions.  The plot action revolves around a shipment of silver stored waiting for shipment, and its disposition in the face of yet another revolution sweeping into the city from the hills.  By the end, the silver has destroyed a woman's soul and taken two men's lives.

Powerful insight into value and worth and the pursuit of dreams.